Teenagers Scare the Living Shit Out Of Me etc. etc.

[dyingtohealyou]

[Characters passing by the bulletin board may notice a new message tacked to it!]

Drinking party at the bar at 8pm. Under 21 only. Adults will be persecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Fun and games included, party hats optional. Don’t be late!

[Sure enough, there’s a gathering of teens (and maybe some not-so-teens?) to be found in the bar! While the posting mentions this is a teen only event, adults are in fact allowed as long as they are cool. OOCLY please be aware there are going to be teens drinking alcohol and possibly smoking! Also additionally, please let the teens/players have fun; again, adults are allowed but only if they’re cool enough to play along without snitching them out!

All party game top levels are going to be made under Ahito’s account but please assume ICly that Akira instigated/explained them! Once the game toplevels are up you can also post your own toplevels to mingle freely if you like IDK IT’S A PARTY HAVE FUN]

Comments

[fellheart]

It means exactly what I said and— little more.

[ stop making more out of it than it is even if he did trip over the truth charm for a moment. ]

[troublereduction]

Aight, if you say so...

[fellheart]

[ he does say so! and they're all under truth compulsion here. therefore he's telling the truth, isn't he?

anyway, a huff, him rolling his eyes. ]

I am aware of how it sounds, but I can't justify any more than that.

[troublereduction]

I figured as much. Your turn to ask me.

[fellheart]

Very well. Truth or dare, Joyous Day?

[troublereduction]

Truth, to be fair.

[fellheart]

[ admittedly, he hadn't anything immediately prepared, so for a good few seconds, his fingers simply tap out a steady drumbeat on the bar counter. ]

... three things you'd do differently, if you had the chance.

[troublereduction]

[ Wow, okay. Day isn't sure if this is going to be a bloodbath or just a minor wound. He taps a finger against the counter too, as he thinks about it.

Honesty charm is going to make him say shit anyway, so he may as well. ]

...One, tryin' to sneak into the Obsidian Mirror, 'cause I got caught thrice and never got to see my sister. Would have changed my approach to somethin' that actually worked at least once. [ Implying that somehow, his 16-year-old self should have been able to sneak into a highly-guarded compound, if only once. ]

Two, uh. Less flings, when I was younger. [ Thanks, honesty charm, but at least he can try to be classy talking about it. ] If only 'cause I was gettin' into 'em for the wrong reasons, now that I think back.

And third... [ There's a long pause, like Day can't make up his mind if it's something he would have done differently if he was given a chance, and then he discards the thought entirely in favour of something else. ] Would have wrote back home, even if it ain't gonna matter anyway. [ Because at least he would have made some kind of contact with Path one last time before that tie was severed. ]

[fellheart]

[ one of these things is not quite like the others. there there, day, he won't heckle about the second thing ... much, outside of a briefly amused, catlike expression that sobers again after. ]

... I believe I overheard a bit of your conversation earlier where you were talking about her. Why and how was it that you were separated?

[ since the way the timeline seems to be shaping up, this happened... before that particular, epochal moment of exaltation.

but there's familiarity, too, so they must have spent time together prior. a tone that fond doesn't happen at a distance. ]

Though, if you don't wish to answer that, you can pass the onus of the game back onto me with another truth.

[troublereduction]

[ Oh, so someone else overheard what he said to Ginger, huh... ]

Nah, it's fine. I've already told someone else 'fore this. [ And bless Yamato for putting up with his stories. ] How do I put this... [ ...Oh, he realises there's going to be some Fun Layers (citation needed) in this for someone like Robin, huh. ]

There's a story where I'm from, that a long time ago, the Five Elemental Dragons gave their blood to a bunch of mortals to grant them power of the elements. I ain't sure how true that is, but it's a fact there a people who can do that, and it's passed down through bloodline. We call 'em Dragon-Blooded, or Princes of the Earth. These days they're mostly Dynasts, but sometimes you get a commoner with an ancestor who had the blood of dragons, and they awaken to it. That's what happened with my sister.

...By law, when that happens, it's gotta be reported to the...Splendid and Just Arbiters of Purpose. [ And for a moment, Day sounds uncharacteristically bitter as he just barely holds himself back from spitting that title out. Maybe he chose to use the full title to make a point, even. ] They take custody of "lost eggs". So they came for my sister too.

[fellheart]

[ mostly akira, actually, and then context clues for the rest ... but he might have overheard snippets of ginger's conversation too. who's to say.

this is, perhaps, the most bitter he's seen and heard day. to that end, he does start a little more slowly: ]

... Well. I can say nothing of the cosmology of your world, but dragons making blood pacts with mortals is a known thing in the realm I hail from as well. At least one royal family's claim to the throne revolves around their ties to the goddess their exalted ancestor once pacted with, in fact.

[ so there might be truth in the telling. who's to say. ]

Oftentimes if the lineage shows itself strongly enough, it manifests in a brand somewhere on the body... and possible other strengths, depending on the nature of the dragon's blessing.

[ but to awaken to it without knowledge of that ancestry, though ... there are are definitely Layers here. ]

... Did the two of you ever try to evade their notice, when you first realized?

[ or was it just... oops, had an awakening in public, couldn't hide from what follows. ]

[troublereduction]

[ Truly, Day has questions about what is it with dragons and them being a shape of power across worlds. He wasn't ever religious even before that incident, but it certainly didn't make him more inclined to be after. ]

She took her Second Breath right in the middle of town. [ So the latter. ] Practically everyone knew, and they were so damned excited 'bout it.

[ Everyone aside from him and Path, really. Robin can probably guess that someone inevitably reported his sister. ]

We had a few days before the arbiters reached our town, but it's also like...even if she didn't want to go, she ain't oughta live like a fugitive, either.

[fellheart]

... One way or another, destiny has a way of catching up. Running likely would have only delayed it, at best.

[ claimed, one way or another, and then removed from their families, though ... there's a number of directions his thoughts can go from there, none of them particularly kind.

do such earthly ties cease to matter, when this second breath of theirs is taken? do those collecting up these lost eggs wish for more easily molded tools, when they reclaim their little lost lambs and usher them into their new families-to-be?

perhaps he is too much a cynic. or perhaps he simply knows exactly what motives some might have in encouraging that kind of isolation. ]

Well. I believe it's your turn to ask again, though I've already given you my answer as to which.

[troublereduction]

[ Unfortunately, Robin is more right than he would ever want to be, though not entirely. ]

Funny how destiny has a way with things even 'fore I became a professional.

[ A dry joke. Day goes quiet after, however, mulling over a question and wondering if he should even ask it. ]

...You got any plans what you wanna do after all this is over?

[fellheart]

[ a blink goes long. then for a few heartbeats more. he's ... resisting the compulsion, at least as long as it takes for him to try to find the best way to word his answer. least committal, least weight.

when his eyes reopen the rest of his expression is blank. ]

... I thought I had.

[troublereduction]

[ ...Day slowly sips his drink. ]

I see. So it's up in the air now?

[ Is this an improvement? Day can't tell. ]

[fellheart]

You make it sound like such a nebulous thing. But I suppose that's not wrong.

[ ... ]

I am not a kind creature. There is a role I am expected to play. The worst that people have to offer still sickens me to the core. The fact of the matter is, I've done things I cannot take back.

But at the same time ... I do not belong in the world I was summoned from. Still, I cannot simply abandon it, or run from the things that have already come to pass.

[troublereduction]

Until it happens, it is kinda nebulous, isn't it?

[ (Day, who has no idea:)

...But he looks contemplative for a while. ]

What's gonna happen if you do go back? [ Day has an inkling, but in the end, he isn't entirely sure what the latest situation is there. ]

[fellheart]

You know what the dragon once prophesied in its final breaths.

[ it. the wings of despair, the breath of ruin. the end of all things. ]

Had I not been summoned here, I would have worked to bring the current age as anyone knew it to an end ... or.

[ or. his tone is calm, impassive, as if delivering simple truths, but what exists of his agitation is betrayed by the way his fingers tap out a steady rhythm on the countertop. ]

Or. The world would have proved itself suited to continue on on its own, misery and ugliness and all, and declared its intent by striking the dragon down once more.

tmw you thought you tagged but find out you imagined it

[troublereduction]

[ It's moments like these that Day is suddenly reminded of what he concluded during his first meeting with Robin: that Robin reminded him of something that would qualify as an enemy of fate.

That said, Day also understands having a sense of responsibility that means one couldn't simply abandon something, even if, perhaps, it might be better to do so. He still frowns at the idea that Robin (or Grima?) will either end an age or be ended himself. ]

...And that's how it has to be? [ Which he realises must sound hilarious from an agent of destiny, but. ]

[fellheart]

What else is there? Trying to pretend to be someone who I no longer am? Taking up the throne that in theory belongs to me, and ruling through the terror everyone has of me? Simply leaving? My absence has hardly done the world any favors either, because without a clear, final ending, my shadow remains.

[ even after a thousand years, people believed in his return whether in fear or in anticipation.

it's one thing if the world tears itself apart on its own. it's another if it does so because of him. ]

Put aside your sympathy. I have done and will do terrible things. Terrible things have been done in my name. I am the harbinger of a fate that has already come to pass, threatening the present of another time with the inevitability I represent.

Short of meting out everyone's endings, which I imagine you and most everyone else here would disapprove of, I am the one thing I can control in its entirety. [ a shrug, then. ] Don't think I haven't considered the circumstances. I can admit that perhaps I am the piece that needs to be removed from the board.

[troublereduction]

[ He knows that Robin has almost certainly thought through this, which is part of why it doesn't feel great to Day: the sense of inevitability about this, because there are only so many possible choices that align with whatever principles Robin has about the matter. He still finds himself wondering if there's a way to handle this situation that doesn't involve Robin's eventual demise. ]

...I know. But I ain't the kinda guy who can stop sympathizin' that easy once I start.

[ And he likes Robin well enough, is the thing. ]

[fellheart]

Hmm. I suppose that was my mistake, wasn't it? Indulged myself just a little bit too much in this game of pretend, and happened to fool others with it.

[ ah, what a pity. it isn't as if he were working to be liked. perhaps even in this, he is meant to usher in despair. despair, after all, is the reassurance of inevitability. if there is and was no other way, then there's no need to feel sorrow for what wasn't meant to be.

but that's not what someone who chose a name like joyous day would make of it, is it? cynicism or no cynicism. acceptance is resignation. ]

Perhaps I should call it here? End scene, curtain call. Shall I wear another skin for our remaining time here? It's not too late for me to remember my cruelty.

[troublereduction]

The hell are you talkin' about?

[ Sir? Just because he doesn't like the idea of the inevitability of your ending doesn't mean he is ready to submit to the despair. ]

It's a lil' too late if you ask me. And it ain't a mistake, even if it was "pretend".

[fellheart]

You weren't supposed to like me, much less sympathize. That's my miscalculation.

[ if he were someone else he'd apologize for it.

a sigh. ]

... Short of tampering with your memories, though, I suppose it is too late to do anything about it.